A Mind to Kill

Seasons

1994

6.7

Detective Chief Inspector Noel Bain looks back fondly to the days when policing involved chasing villains, playing rugby and drinking beer. However, he has come to realize that contemporary policing imposes dilemmas that no training manual could ever anticipate.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Black Silence

In the midst of a strike at a local coal mine, DCI Bain finds himself investigating the murder of 17-year old Lesley Price, a local prostitute. She had witnessed a scab being beaten up by some of the strikers and then got into a car believed to be owned by Roderick Tate, the strike leader. Bain comes under political pressure from local Labour party officials to either arrest Tate or leave him alone. He also has to deal with the local constabulary who object to Bain being on their patch and who have a similar unsolved murder from three years before. When a local man confesses to the killing, Bain refuses to accept the evidence and remains convinced Tate is their man.

S1 • E2

White Rocks

The police investigate the murder of Janice Johnson who was found beaten to death in her holiday caravan. Her young son Luke has run away and the police believe he may have witnessed the murder. Luke is actually being hidden by Lisa Hailes, a disturbed young woman who is the daughter of the holiday camp manager. In charge of the investigation is DCI Noel Bain, a widower with a teenage daughter. As the investigation develops, it is clear that there are goings on at the camp that some are prepared to kill to keep hidden.

S1 • E3

Gameboys

The police investigate the death of a young man who is found in an incineration pit meant for diseased animals. The police confirm that the young man was a rent boy but the subsequent autopsy shows that he was quite drunk and on drugs and choked on his own vomit. They focus on Roy Earland whose house was nearby, but after he commits suicide they look elsewhere. Although no longer a murder investigation, Bain continues a full investigation into the boy's death looking for the man who used him and provided the drugs. At home meanwhile, Bain is concerned about his daughter's behavior as she starts dating a local rugby player.

S1 • E4

Rest Not Secure

Things are not going well for DCI Bain. At home, 17-year old daughter Hannah increasingly resents him as a policeman, all the more so that he had to arrest someone she had become close to, and packs her bags. With her whereabouts unknown, Bain's work is affected as he increasingly focuses of personal rather than professional responsibilities. With a gangland war brewing and tit for tat murders, an arrest goes bad when armed officers shoot both Bain and Mrs. Tam, the suspects mother. On being released from hospital, Bain takes some time off and is unaware that the oldest of the Tam brothers, Matthew, has escaped from prison, apparently with only one objective in mind: kill DCI Bain.

S1 • E5

Son of His Works

DCI Noel Bain and his team investigate the murder of Dilwyn Collier. He is found nude in the woods having been run over by a car, beaten and shot and near what was apparently a grave he was forced to dig himself. As the investigation proceeds, they focus their interests on a nearby ashram where Collier's daughter Joanna now lived. What they learn is that the ashram may be more a money-making enterprise and less of a religious center - and there may be an illegal drugs connection. At least one irate relative, whose wealthy brother has become a resident and generous donor, is convinced the ashram is up to no good. A second murder however shows them that despite what they've learned about the center, the solution to Collier's murder may lie elsewhere.

S1 • E6

Rachel Hardcastle

DCI Noel Bain finds himself under suspicion of murder when Rachel Hardcastle's husband is found beaten to death. Bain had only met Rachel the week before when she performed at a concert. She took an immediate liking to him and they spent a good deal of time together. Few of Bain's colleagues believe that he would have anything to do with murder, but as they cannot investigate one of their own, an officer from another force is brought in. When forensic evidence linking him to the murder is found, Bain is detained.